In a column for the Columbia Daily Spectator, Owen Hearey examines why so many students are snapping up iPods and switching from Windows-based PCs to Macs. Primarily, he chalks it up to three things: music, stability, and security from virus attacks. One student in the story was quoted as saying: “Macs are the s***. They’re the easiest to use and Apple’s interface is just so slick. [By comparison] XP looks like Fisher-Price.” Hearey notes that “According to market tracker IDC, in 2003 Apple sold 193,000 Macs to people in colleges and universities, a jump of 17.7% over the previous year. If you only consider laptops, the computer of choice for most new college students, Apple sales to higher education grew by 58.5% in the same period.”